Get on the bus! Save the Upper Pitt River

Did you see the front cover of (Sunday's) Province?
canada.com/theprovince

This is an issue that is grabbing the public imagination, and can bring the government to its knees!

The Western Canada Wilderness Committee is a collection of some of my foremost heroes, and lately I've been honoured to work elbow-to-elbow with them on trying to stop Gateway. I love WCWC -- their spirit is uplifting and relentless, and whatsmore, they are so frickin' good at what they do! They're willing and ready to slog through all the tedious and sometimes heartbreaking work of trying to protect our feisty planet, and what stokes that fire is the support that they get from thousands of people like me and you...and the fact that for all the disappointments, once in a while...WE WIN.

And this one...WE CAN WIN, create a significant precedent, and change the course of history.

The short story is, the BC Govt. is privatizing power production, and SELLING OUR RIVERS to private companies. There are now 500 applications in to dam rivers and streams throughout BC.

Up for grabs now is the Upper Pitt River, just east of Vancouver. This means running power lines through Pinecone Burke Provincial Park, and likely destroying a major salmon run and precious ecosystem including grizzly bears, wolverines and mountain goats.

BUT, a public meeting in Pitt Meadows was shut down a few weeks ago by the fire marshall, when more than 400 people showed up to voice opposition. A couple of weeks back a similar meeting in Mission was standing-room-only.

This Tuesday Mar. 25 is the re-convened meeting for Pitt Meadows, and the room is booked to hold 1,000 people. Let's pack that room solid! It'll be some POWERFUL fun.

Save Pinecone Burke and the Upper Pitt!
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Pitt Meadows Secondary School
19438 116B Avenue
Pitt Meadows, B.C.
4:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.

The Wilderness Committee will be running buses out to the public hearing. Bus departures will be at Waterfront Station at 5.30 pm and Braid SkyTrain station at 6 pm. For full details and to reserve a place on the bus, please call 604 683-8220, or email andrew@@@wildernesscommittee...org

This is the final, and most important, of the public hearings on the Upper Pitt private power proposal. A strong turnout at this meeting gives us a real chance to stop this project. The last Pitt Meadows meeting drew over 500 people, and this meeting needs to be larger. We are expecting a sizable media turn out, giving us a platform to tell the truth about the impacts of private power. With your help, we can stop the attack on Pinecone Burke Provincial Park, keep the Upper Pitt safe from large-scale development, and push back on the private power industry. Spread the word far and wide!

If you haven't yet written a letter about the park boundary process, please take a few minutes to make your voice heard. The comment period for the public is open until April 2, 2008. Write to:

Boundary Change Pinecone Burke
c/o BC Parks
PO Box 9398, Stn. Prov. Govt.
Victoria, BC, V8W 9M9
fax 1-250-387-5757
PineconeBurke@gov.bc.ca

See you on the bus!
-Carmen

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Here's some more info for you:
publicpowerbc.ca/s-o-s-save-our-streams-and-rivers
wildernesscommittee.org/campaigns/publiclands/.../Vol27No02
saveourrivers.ca

Upcoming ride for Old-Growth!!

The BC Liberal government has announced a new plan for BC's coastal forests, the "Coastal Forest Action Plan". This “Log it All” and “Export the Logs” plan places no new restrictions on the logging of Old-Growth forests, provides misleading old-growth forest statistics, and will lead to an overall increase in raw log exports.

The old-growth forests of Vancouver Island are among the most spectacular landscapes anywhere on Earth. They're home unique wildlife and are a fundamental part of Vancouver Island's tourism economy. They are also of great cultural importance to the First Nations of the Island, most of whom never gave up ownership over their forests through any treaties.

Currently 75% of the original productive old-growth forests have already been logged (including over 90% of the valley bottoms with the largest trees). A new Coastal Old-Growth Strategy is needed and needs to include:

• Enact concrete timelines and targets to reduce and quickly end old-growth logging on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland where old-growth forests are now scarce.
• Ensure that our second-growth forests are logged sustainably instead.
• Ban raw log exports from private and public lands.

Come out to the next critical mass and show the government you care about saving the remaining Old-Growth forests!!

For more information on Old-Growth forests see: wildernesscommitteevictoria.org